News on foreclosure front almost all good

LOS ANGELES — U.S. homes are entering the foreclosure process at a slower pace than a year ago, and fewer properties are being repossessed by lenders, new data show.

Between January and October, 971,533 homes were placed on the path to foreclosure, down 8 percent from the corresponding period last year, foreclosure listing firm RealtyTrac Inc. said Thursday.

At the other end of the foreclosure process, banks repossessed 559,063 homes through the end of last month, a decline of nearly 19 percent from a year earlier.

That puts lenders on pace to complete 650,000 foreclosures this year, down from 800,000 in 2011, the firm said.

While many states continued to see heightened foreclosure activity last month, the decline at a national level reflects several factors working to stem, or in some cases, merely delay foreclosures.

Home sales are running ahead of last year, lifting home prices in many parts of the country, which can make it easier for homeowners to lower their monthly payments by refinancing.

“Those improving housing conditions are lifting all boats and lifting some people out of foreclosure,” said Daren Blomquist, a vice president at RealtyTrac.

However, superstorm Sandy drove a large increase in foreclosures late in the month. RealtyTrac said foreclosures in New York and New Jersey more than doubled compared to a year ago, and in Connecticut, activity grew 41 percent. Those were the three largest increases in the U.S.

Foreclosure activity rose 92 percent in the 34 counties in those states that were hardest-hit by the storm. Even with that increase, foreclosures in those areas were less than half the national average.

The percentage of mortgage-holding homeowners who were at least two months behind on their payments sank in the third quarter to the lowest level in more than three years, according to credit reporting firm TransUnion.

Efforts by federal and state lawmakers to slow down the foreclosure process or make loan modification a more likely option for homeowners also are having an impact.

Lenders also appear to be more amenable to short sales, when the bank agrees to accept less than what the homeowner owes on their mortgage, as a way to avoid foreclosing upon a borrower.

In February, the mortgage industry agreed to pay $25 billion to settle allegations that many banks and mortgage servicers processed foreclosures without verifying documents.

Another instrumental factor in the sharp slowdown in foreclosure activity: The pipeline of risky home loans made before 2008 is shrinking. Loans issued since then, after banks tightened lending standards, are less likely to go unpaid.

“We’re past the bulk of the high-risk loans that were most susceptible to foreclosure,” Blomquist said.

Even so, there are signs at the state level that more homes could end up in foreclosure in coming months.

The trend is most evident in states such as New York, Florida and New Jersey. In those states, the courts play a role in the foreclosure process, prolonging the time it’s taking lenders to tackle their backlog of foreclosure cases.

Fourteen states saw an annual increase in foreclosure activity, which RealtyTrac measures as the number of homes receiving a default notice, scheduled for auction or repossessed by the bank.

Of those, only two — North Carolina and Washington State — are not states where the courts are involved in foreclosures.

Foreclosure moratoriums in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut in the aftermath of Sandy last month means it will take longer for lenders complete pending foreclosures, Blomquist said.

All told, 89,209 homes entered the foreclosure process in October, up 2 percent from September, but down 19 percent from October last year, RealtyTrac said.

Lenders repossessed 53,478 homes last month, a drop of less than 1 percent from the previous month, down 21 percent from October 2011. Home repossessions have declined on a monthly basis the past 24 months.

2 comments

What we have failed to see is the mortgage fraud settlement that needs to move hundreds of billions of dollars from the banks to the people so we don’t have all of these foreclosures. Remember, the $25 billion settlement last year was just a beginning and financial analysts placed the total settlement at $600-800 billion. So we don’t want to do a foreclosure count until we get this sizable settlement to those victims and those seeking damages from the massive fraud.

Second, we need to be public about who is getting these mortgage modifications and is it the bank doing them or Obama’s housing program as both have the same guidelines. Some people a little skeptical about the process might think that $70 billion in taxpayer money is actually paying the $25 billion in mortgage fraud……I’m just saying folks! One would also think that if the third Way democrats made their first move to raise to $700,000 the insurance for Federal housing loans……there may be more affluent homeowners getting mortgage adjustments since the banks were left to decide who will get all of the benefit of the $25 billion.

Then there is round two of the great subprime mortgage fraud that gives and gives and that is the bundling of all those foreclosed homes into the same securities that made trillions the first time around….only the same developers and realtors that sold the fraudulent loans will now get all these homes for pennies on the dollar at almost no interest and use them as rentals that keep on giving! This by all the same people who are supposed to be paying the huge mortgage fraud settlements.

I feel an urgency to get this out, and I know it is because I am on the right track finally. I went to Financial Screen Shots – got the link from http://www.stopforeclosurefraud.com. I ordered the Loan Search Within 2 days I got back the info showing my loan was securitized.

I order the full package of all My documents and it contained everything! I have absolute evidence my mortgage note was sold in 2008. I stopped paying 2011 and I am being foreclosed by Bank of America. My lawyer says they have absolutely NO STANDING and he plans to sue the lawyers bringing the case into court. I finally have BOFA in a lie! Anyway, felt such a need to express myself. Good luck everyone.